Fewer than 20 houses for sale as Tivoli Court, Taylors Lakes, auction tops reserve by $80,000

The June 18 sale of 1 Tivoli Court for $575,000 attracted a crowd of almost 130, according to Ray White Taylors Lakes director Peter Travlos.

“There was a really big knockout bid at the start, the first bid started off at $480,000 and after two more we were on the market,” Mr Travlos said.

“It (the first bid) was from a buyer who had missed out at an auction a few weekends ago when they started off quite low.”

The big opening bid may have warded off four or five interested parties, but left four in the running, according to Mr Travlos.

“All four were in it right through to the end,” he said.

The third bid, $500,000, overshot the home’s $495,000 reserve price.

In the end the home sold to a local seeking a home to downsize to. They had also missed out at another property a few weeks prior, according to Mr Travlos.

Several unlucky parties, including the knockout bidder, were still on the hunt, Mr Travlos advised.

And it may be a long search, as CoreLogic records to June 20 indicated there were just 19 houses for sale in Taylors Lakes. A June 21 search for the suburb on realestate.com.au that excluded houses under contract returned just eight results.

On the same day a double-storey home at 10 Roseberry Ave, Keilor Downs, sold under the hammer for $630,000.

Three bidders fought it out for the house leading to an extra $10,000 above the reserve price.

“Keilor Downs has definitely been a sleeping giant, and it’s starting to wake up,” Mr Travlos said.

With a further auction success storey at 38 Goldsmith Ave, Delahey, where a $380,000 final bid eclipsed the three-bedroom home’s reserve by $40,000, Mr Travlos had some advice for those considering selling.

“For me, I’d be selling in the months where buyers don’t have a lot of choice,” he said.

“Come spring there’s going to be too much choice and prices will be affected.”

Meanwhile, the June 18 auction of a Keilor Downs block of land started with a low offer, according to First National Taylors Lakes director Alex Dacakis.

Bidding for 19 Aldershot Drive opened $170,000 below the vacant block’s eventual $420,000 sale price, $20,000 clear of the reserve.

“They started me off at $250,000,” Mr Dacakis said. “I don’t mind it (a low offer), it gets everyone involved for the auction and that can be what you need to get it fired up.”

And it worked, right up until bidding reached the $370,000 mark.

“It stalled at about $370,000 and we were $30,000 away and then all of a sudden we went from $370,000 to $415,000 within about a minute,” he said.

The 593sq m allotment at 19 Aldershot Drive was one of an increasingly limited number of vacant lots available in the suburb, according to Mr Dacakis.

The arrival of five bidders on auction day reinforced the scarcity of vacant lots in the area.

The eventual buyer, a local who was still assessing their options for the property, was one of the last to join the bidding, according to Mr Dacakis.

Mr Dacakis added that even homes that passed in at auction were selling shortly after.

“In the past 12 months homes that pass in at auction have often sold within two weeks,” he said.

Among the more recent examples was 2/2 Terrye Court, Hillside.

The three-bedroom home initially passed in at auction for $302,000.

“We sold it three days later for a price well in advance of that,” Mr Dacakis said.

The only thing missing from the original auction had been a first-home buyer who liked the location, but wasn’t prepared to make an offer without a subject to finance clause, he said.

Adding further weight to his theory was the $810,000 price tag that has emerged for 25 The Avenue, Caroline Springs.

“That’s a really good price, we appraised it for around $720,000-$780,000,” Mr Dacakis said.

The luxurious, double-storey family home had also passed in at an earlier auction.

The home sold to a family buyer.